Happy belated Thanksgiving to one and all. It was a good family oriented holiday around the Preserve, complete with the joyous arrival in the mail of several classic figures from the best decade ever, destined to be gifts for close friends of the Preserve for the season of giving which will soon set upon us.

It is, of course, time to make things festive, and I find that it's very nearly December, so by all means time to get a tree and put up the lights. In another few days I suspect all of the stores will be out of such things, as they have now been on the shelves for an unbelievable two months, so I had better plan to set things up quickly.

I have been thinking about Pachinko machines now and then, as it seems a logical counterpart to my enjoyment of american pinball, and as a child I had a toy pachinko which I really enjoyed, not having any idea of its greater cultural significance to the distant nation.

While recently window shopping on ebay, as I do, I found an awesome pachinko of Mazinger Z, or as American audiences may, perhaps, recognize, Tranzor Z. I would love to pick this up, as I've never seen one before and may not again. While I dig the old nails-in-wood models of the early days of the craft, much as I enjoy old pinball machines, I admit that I'm intrigued by the video screens and flashing lights that newer models boast. I think I need to see them in action to really form an opinion. Posted by charlie on November 16th 2006Leave CommentShare

The book that I'm toiling to write for the November marathon is coming along, though I find it leaves little time and typing energy for other projects. I suspect things will be a little lean until December.

However, that won't stop us from having a crazy Internet Aneurysm. Drink Tab, and be a Mind Sticker...madness of the '60s!

The newly remastered, reprinted, and re-released Transformers: The Movie came out on DVD very recently, and I found myself at WalMart today so had to pick it up. I had read just last night on tfw2005 that the WalMart verion had some sort of special iron-on patch, so I figured...what the hell. I've also gone against one of my rules...well, it's really more of a guideline than a rule, not to buy the new line of Transformers. This is not strictly true, since I have purchased some in the past, but I'm trying very hard not to get hooked on the new toys for space reasons mostly, as I can't even display the huge collection I already have! There are two problems with this: the new toys are pretty cool and well made, and I've started to enjoy the characters due to watching the cartoon. Oh, moments of weakness, I fight against you but am no match. Yeah, it's a bad pic, but I wanted to get the menu screen of my bootleg Tf:Cybertron in the background. Foreground includes the new TF:TM dvd, Override GTS, and the new Starscream 'Classic Deluxe' which I've actually opened (gasp!) and it is as cool as it looked to be in the store. Posted by charlie on November 9th 2006Leave CommentShare

I voted today, and I hope everyone else did as well. I figure that there's very little I can do to positively help my country these days, short of getting into politics, which path I think I need to not go down just now, so I do what I can and I vote. In spite of my concerns about how things are now, voting was still a great rush for me, and I enjoyed it as much as I always do. It reminds me of first principles and idealism, and for just a brief period of time lets me forget about reality and enjoy some of what this country was based upon. It's only on the drive home that I lapse back to reality and start hoping that my vote actually gets recorded, and counted.

And here's a voting related Internet Aneurysm, or at least it was found with that intention, and would make for an interesting, and not surprising, voting booth. Posted by charlie on November 7th 2006Leave CommentShare

Many folks know of my enjoyment and fascination with the character of Burt Gummer from the Tremors movies. Where to direct my effort for Halloween this year was really a simple decision. Other pictures from the Halloween 2006 party may be found here.
Posted by charlie on November 5th 2006Leave CommentShare

From the Super Powers excellent line of figures and vehicles, Darkseid and The Penguin have started things rolling in the figures section. The cards may be rough, but at least they're unpunched!
And today's Internet Aneurysm shows what happens when penguin searches go awry. Posted by charlie on November 2nd 2006Leave CommentShare